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All rounder
An all-rounder is a cricket player who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a few batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are considered specialists. Some wicket-keepers have the skills of a specialist batsman and have been referred to as all-rounders, but the term wicketkeeper-batsman is more commonly applied to them. An all-rounder can be considered cricket's equivalent of a utility player. Concept There is no precise qualification for a player to be considered an all-rounder and use of the term tends to be subjective. The generally accepted criterion is that a "genuine all-rounder" is someone whose batting or bowling skills, considered alone, would be good enough to win them a place in a first-class team. By this definition, a genuine all-rounder is quite rare and extremely valuable to a team as he effectively operates as two players. Confusion sometimes arises when a specialist bowler performs well with the bat. For example, the great West Indies pace bowler Malcolm Marshall sometimes produced a good innings, but not often enough for him to be considered an all-rounder. Instead he would be called a "useful lower order batsman". Equally, a specialist batsmen may be termed a "useful change bowler" and a good example of this type is Allan Border who once took eleven wickets in a Test match in 1989 when conditions suited his occasionally used left arm spin. One of the main constraints to becoming a recognised all-rounder is that batsmen and bowlers "peak" at different ages. Batsmen tend to reach their peak in their late twenties after their technique has matured through experience. Conversely, fast bowlers often peak in their early to mid twenties at the height of their physical prowess. Other bowlers, mostly spinners but also fast bowlers who can "swing" the ball, are most effective in their later careers. Essentially, an all-rounder is better at bowling than batting or vice-versa. Very few are equally good at both and hardly any have been outstanding at both. Thus the terms "bowling all-rounder" and "batting all-rounder" have come into use. One commonly used statistical rule of thumb is that a player's batting average (the higher the better) should be greater than his bowling average (the lower the better). Only three all-rounders have Test batting averages of more than 20 greater than their bowling average: Sobers, Kallis and Hammond. Keith Miller had a good Test batting average of 36.97 and an outstanding bowling average of 22.97, so he would be termed a bowling all-rounder. Garfield Sobers had an outstanding Test batting average of 57.78 and a good bowling average of 34.03, so he would be termed a batting all-rounder. Closer to the ideal of a genuine all-rounder is Ian Botham who had averages of 33.34 (batting) and 28.40 (bowling), neither of which is outstanding. No all-rounder in history has achieved outstanding career averages as both batsman and bowler in Test cricket. Sobers is widely regarded as the "greatest-ever all-rounder" but, as the figures show, even he was much better at one discipline than the other. However Sobers was described as a great batsman; and a very good bowler: his distinctive contribution was that he was able to bowl medium fast seam as well as wrist spin, having originally entered the West Indies team as a finger spinner. 90 out of the 100 judges of the 5 Wisden cricketers of the Century selected Sobers in their five picks. An all-rounder who missed out on Test Cricket due to the apartheid era of the 1970's and 80's was the South African Clive Rice. His first class batting average is 40.95 and bowling average was 22.49. He won the "Silk Cut Challenge" event for all-rounders against Ian Botham and Richard Hadlee during the 1980's. See also *Batsman *Bowler *Fielder *Wicket-keeper *Cricket terminology Category:Cricket terminology Category:All-rounders